Warm up properly with these warm up exercises and stretches to reduce the risk of sports injury.
Warm up exercises are critical components of any sports or fitness training program. When it comes to preventing sports injuries, the importance of a structured warm up routine cannot be overstated.
When it comes to warming up properly, several elements must be considered. They should all work together to prepare the individual for sports performance while also reducing the likelihood of sports injury due to physical activity, as shown in the diagram below.
What exactly is a warm up?
A warm up is any action, physical or mental, that helps prepare a person for the demands of their chosen sport or exercise.
Why Should You Warm Up?
It is beneficial to warm up before any physical exercise for various reasons, but the primary objective is to prepare the body and mind for rigorous exertion.
• One way it accomplishes this is by raising the body’s core temperature while also raising the body’s muscle temperature. By increasing muscle temperature, you are aiding in the muscles’ relaxation, suppleness, and pliability.
• An effective warm up also increases both your heart rate and your respiratory rate. This increases blood flow, which increases oxygen and nutrient delivery to working muscles.
All of this aids in the preparation of the muscles, tendons, and joints for more strenuous activity.
Stretching Guidelines for Warm Ups
Stretching and warming up are no exceptions to the rules and guidelines that govern most activities to ensure their safety. Stretching, if done incorrectly, can be extremely dangerous and harmful. This brief video demonstrates how to properly warm up to get the most out of your stretching.
The Most Common Misconception
Many people avoid stretching because they are unsure what it accomplishes as part of the warm up. The previous sentence contains the key to understanding the role stretching plays. However, you must read it carefully.
Stretching is a critical component of the warm up process. Warm up exercises such as stretching are essential, but they are not the only exercises that should be undertaken. You should avoid making the error of believing that just a few stretches will suffice in terms of training and preparation.
When performed correctly, several critical components of a great pregame warm up work together to reduce the probability of sports injury and prepare the individual for physical activity.
How Should You Structure Your Warm Up?
Most importantly, always begin with the most basic and gentlest action possible and gradually increase the intensity of each portion of the body until it reaches a state of physical and mental equilibrium.
Consider warm up as an onramp. Imagine that your activity before your workout is street traffic speed, and your workout is freeway speed.
The onramp takes helps you move from one speed to the next safely.
Warm up should prepare you for the upcoming physical activity, and where the possibility of sports injury has been reduced as much as possible. So, how should you structure your warm up to achieve these objectives?
There are many elements in an effective warm up. Below are a few.
- Nervous System Tuning In
- A general warm up
- Static Stretching
- Activity specific warm up
- Dynamic Stretching
These components work together to bring the body and mind to a physical peak, preparing them for the impending activity. This technique reduces the chance of sports injury.
The Four Essential Warm-Up Components
Understanding and executing the components of an effective and safe warm up is crucial. The place of stretching in a warm up routine is specific and depends on the other components.
The following are the essential components that must be included to achieve a successful and full warm up:
1- Nervous System Tune-Up
These activities help your brain send strong signals to the same side of the body and the opposite side. They help you engage the stabilizer muscles needed in balance and proprioception.
1. General Warm UP
A light physical activity, such as walking, jogging, easy swimming, stationary bike riding, skipping, or easy aerobics, should be included in the general warm up.
General warm up should be adjusted to the athletes’ fitness levels (or how hard and how long they should work). A proper general warm up should take five to ten minutes and result in a mild sweat for the average person.
The goal of the general warm up is more than raising your heart and respiratory rates. If that was a goal, scarring someone could be considered a warm up.
Redistribution of blood within the body, increasing the body temperature, warming up the fluids within the joints, and more are part of the warm up.
The blood flow aids in the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to working muscles. Change in Synovial fluid reduces the impact on bones.
2. Static Stretching
Static stretching, indeed! (Static stretching for 10–15 seconds on a shorthold) This is safe and effective method of basic stretching as long as you pay attention to your posture during the stretching.
For example, a hamstring stretch with a rounded back strains the lower vertebrae.
Static stretching should include all major muscle groups during this part of the warm up, and it should last about five to ten minutes.
However, static stretching may negatively impact your ability to contract muscles. Your warm up should not impair your performance participating in sports requiring high levels of power and speed. As a result, static stretching is always performed early in the warm-up procedure and is always followed by sports-specific drills and dynamic stretching.
This part of the warm-up is critical because it helps to lengthen both the muscles and tendons, allowing your limbs to move more freely. This is critical in preventing muscle and tendon injuries (see related articles below).
The two components listed above serve as the foundation for a thorough and effective warm-up. These two components must be completed correctly before moving on to the next two components. After completing components one and two, the more specific and vigorous activities required for components three and four can begin.
3. Warm-up for the sport
Next comes specific warm up for the activity you planned.
Now you prepare your body for the demands of your sport. This section of the warm-up should be more active. Sports-specific and technical drills should simulate the movements and actions necessary during a sporting event.
Dynamic Stretching
Finally, a proper warm-up should include a series of dynamic stretches. However, if done incorrectly, this type of stretching increases the risk of injury. Dynamic stretching is most effective after you’ve established a moderate to a high level of general flexibility.
Dynamic stretching involves gently bouncing or swinging a body part to the end of its range of motion. Animal movements are great examples that do not require any bouncing.
Any bouncing or swinging should be controlled and not explosive.
Furthermore, it is critical to maintaining the dynamic stretches appropriate to the athlete’s sport throughout this final phase of a successful warm-up. In this final phase of the warm up, the athlete should achieve their physical and mental peak performance. The athlete is now in the finest possible condition to handle the rigors of their sport or activity.
How Long Should I Warm Up?
As long as it takes.
I realize that may sound harsh, but it fits the reality of our world. Your before warm up physical state varies based on sleep, food, age, activities etc.
Your warm up duration should take that into account. As long as you focus on being aware of a warmed-up state, you can work as little as five minutes or as long as 10 or 15 minutes to achieve that.
It is recommended that the length of time you spend warming up corresponds to your level of involvement in your specific sporting activity, such as running or swimming. To improve their general health and fitness, people should set aside a minimum of five to ten minutes each day for exercise. If you participate in high-level competitive sports, on the other hand, you must commit sufficient time and effort to a complete warm-up before each game.
